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Malaysia is a major Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) operator in Malaysia and has been established for just over 20 years now. It serves mainly chicken related items but offers side dishes to its consumers as well. Lately, more and more Malaysians have been opting for a healthier eating diet as a large number of them have become more health conscious. This has opened the door for KFC’s main competitors, such as McDonald’s, to come out with a new range of healthier products, allowing them to mount a greater challenge on KFC Malaysia’s current position as Malaysia’s leading fast-food operator.
As a response to the advancement made by KFC’s competitors in providing healthier fast food, KFC are to introduce a new set of healthier products that would be mainly targeted at health conscious people, living in Malaysia. Its target market would largely be based on segmentation of age, where it would be focused on customers in the age group of between 4 to 40 years old. KFC Malaysia would, nevertheless, have to fight off fierce competition from other fast food operators, such as Kenny Roger’s, Burger King, A&W, Radix Chicken and KFC’s biggest rival, McDonald’s, who are also trying to take hold of the new market of healthier products.
The new healthier menu that KFC Malaysia is going to introduce would not only be a new healthier alternative to its existing products, but also an addition to what it already has to offer. The pricing and promotion strategies would also be looked into as KFC Malaysia prepares to introduce its new healthier menu to the public. INTRODUCTION I have been to KFC many times in recent years, despite there not being many KFC restaurants near where I live. Every time I have loved the food, however until now I never felt the urge to write an opinion about KFC, but now have to do it because management assignment is compulsory to pass up.
Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a very well known restaurant in the world. It is rated at number 60 as the world most well known brand by Business Week (McDonalds at number 9 and Nescafe, 23). In Malaysia, children age from 4 years old to senior citizen knows about KFC very well. The chicken in KFC have special taste compare to McDonalds. Its history spans almost 80 years when it started at Corbin (Kentucky-USA), in the 1930s. During this period the United States was under The Great Depression with almost 25% unemployment rate.
The hard time was probably one of the biggest factors in forcing Harland Sanders (“The Colonel”) to start experimenting with various mixes of spices and herbs, trying to get the best formula for his recipe. (If we still remember the Asian Economic Crash 1997-2002, one of the last remaining business that kept going during the recession was the food industry). The same happened during 2008-2009 rescission. By 1939, the recipe was already perfected and the Colonel had expanded his restaurant to accommodate 142 seats. This was a fairy large restaurant; the size is equivalent to several tennis courts.
However there was one problem. The WAITING time! It took almost 30 minutes for the chicken to properly cook. Turn the gas bigger and you risk of having the chicken cooked on the outside but still red with blood inside. Saved by the Pressure Cooker Thanks to technology, in 1939 pressure cooker was introduced. Pressure cooker allow liquid to boils at higher temperature. Water for example normally boils at 100 degree Celcius, but with a pressure cooker the sealed lid doesn’t allow air or liquid to escape and enable water to boils higher at 125 Celcius.
This significantly shortened the time for cooking and as an added advantage, the nutrients (hence the taste) are retained making the food more delicious. Since the boiling point is much higher, this would also kill more germs and make the food last longer. It should be noted that The Colonel spotted the pressure cooking technique just weeks after it was introduced. This means he was always looking for ways to improve the taste and the time it takes to cook the famous kentucky.